Taste of Times Square 2015

I'm alive with a post for a food festival that I could've put up last year! It's alright though, this food festival is from this year. Because I don't want to make the same mistake (wait too long and then never post about it...), I'm gonna try to make this concise. Prepare for lots of pictures.

Pictured: A board with the location of all the stands

I'd first like to note that the weather was a bit gloomy, although that did not alter the food experience.

 

Pictured: Table for Paul's on Time Square, adorned with platters of tiramisu, panna cotta, and chocolate covered strawberries

Beginning with the panna cotta - tiny, but smooth. Reminescent of melted vanilla ice cream, only thicker and richer. As I described to Kaity in an attempt to explain what panna cotta is, it was akin to a milky vanilla pudding. The bit of strawberry sauce on top was tangy and complimented sweet cream.

Pictured: A decorative cheesecake, courtesy of Junior's

Next up, shrimp and grits. The grits were more textured than I had expected - there were probably real pieces of corn. Shrimp on point. No comments on the sauce except that it reminded me of something else I've had before.

 

Rigatoni bolognese from Orso - basically what you'd expect. Pasta with beefy tomato sauce.

Dark chocolate layer cake. Overly sweet and decadent for the average human being, so sharing would be a good idea. Denser than your average cake. Giant malt ball garnish.

Chicken and sausage jambalaya from Bourbon Street Bar and Grille. Never having had jumbalaya, I was unsure of what to expect of this. The rice was very soft - you wouldn't be able to pick grain by grain. According to Kaity, the sausage was unexpectedly soft, unlike the snap of the casing you'd usually get from a sausage link.

Roast lamb slider from Hourglass Tavern. Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but one of the tastiest. Lamb was tender and went well with the light and refreshing tzatziki sauce.

Bananas Foster Cheesecake from Planet Hollywood Times Square. Cold cheesecake and warm cinnamony sauce are amazing together. Looked like a mess, but it was my favorite thing that day.

Our last sampler was the Signature Mac & Cheese and Beef Brisket combo from B.B King Blues Club & Grill. The mac and cheese was alright - it wasn't anything spectacular. The beef brisket sauce was a bit sweet from the sauce. Surprisingly (or maybe not), the two went well together.

Well, that's all from that day! It was great to be able to try food from lots of different places that I wouldn't have been able to try otherwise, due to a low budget (broke foodie struggles).

And now, a bit of a shoutout for the people I was with:

Photo Credit: Kaity's Instagram

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I did attend this food festival last year, but never got around to posting about it. We tried recreating the photo we took together in 2014, and ended up with these gems. Thanks, foodie team.

Anyway, have you been to the Taste of Times Square Food Festival? Would you want to next year (first Monday of June, I believe). What would you want to try?

Happy Eating!!!

Macaron Day 2015

If you're friends with any foodies or macaron-lovers, surely you've at least heard about the upcoming Macaron Day this Friday, March 20.

The reason why people are hyped up about this day is because participating stores will be giving out free macarons from 10AM - 5PM or until supplies last, as you probably read in the article above (from amNY).

Pictured: Macaron from Macaron Cafe, one of the participating stores

So, now for me to spew out some additional fun facts about this day that I didn't know myself until I checked out the site.

François Payard organized the first Macaron Day in NYC, which was inspired by the Jour du Macaron in Paris. Unsurprisingly, Jour de Macaron translates to Day of Macaron.

Macaron Day will always take place on the first day of Spring.

The purpose of this event is to raise money and awareness for City Harvest, a food rescue organization.

City Harvest is helping to feed 1.4 million New Yorkers facing hunger by collecting excess food from restaurants other food establishments delivering it to community food programs across the city.

I encourage you to visit the website to enlighten yourself more about Macaron Day!

For more information about this event, click here.
If you'd like to read about Macaron Parlor, click here.

Happy Eating!!!

Quick Mention: 12 Corners

 12 Corners

155 E Broadway
New York, NY 10002
Lower East Side

I’m back from the dead!

Ah yes, the lovely incoming warm weather must have brought me back to life. Finally - no more having to tread through inches of snow to get to my destination.

 

Pictured: Relishing the warmth of the sun

 

 What better way to celebrate this amazing weather than by visiting a local coffee shop? Granted, I do wish I had gone when it was still a bit colder, but ordering a hot latte when it was 60 degrees out was definitely worth it, just for the pretty, pretty latte art. 😊☕️

Pictured: Pumpkin Spice Latte

I’m surprised they still sell pumpkin spice lattes in March - I'm gonna guess most coffee joints aren’t going to make it a seasonal flavor like Starbucks.

Of course, coffee is typically accompanied with pastries and the store was not lacking in that department. I noticed the muffins were the exact ones from Blue Sky Bakery - it was actually the sign of the flavor that made me realize this and upon discussion with my friend, yes, they are from Blue Sky Bakery and the other branch has doughnuts from Dough [which I still need to try].

Like most coffee shops, this one had enough seating to accommodate for those that come with their laptops to stay for a couple of hours to study and get work done. I envy those types of people as I was sadly unproductive. Hope I wasn't disruptive to everyone else; I tend to be a loud chatterbox…>___>

Employed with friendly staff, this was a store I'm glad I finally got to try out.

☕️ Happy eating!!! ☕️